George Galloway has for years been the government's biggest critic when it came to Iraq.
George Galloway maintains the accusations made against him in today's Telegraph are "preposterous" and says that he will sue for libel to clear his reputation.
In the meantime, however, he faces an investigation by his own party which says the allegations that he was paid at least £375,000 by Saddam Hussein's regime are "extremely serious".
Secretly, it's probable that there's some satisfaction from those who were infuriated by the MPs vocal anti-war stance and close contacts with the former Iraqi regime.
George Galloway has long been mocked in Parliament as the member for Baghdad Central - but if the latest allegations are true it would spell the end of his political career.
Inside the burnt-out wreckage of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry in Baghdad, journalists have been trawling through the remaining files. A Daily Telegraph correspondent found a series of box files marked BRITAIN which had survived the fires.
Wading through the papers yesterday he found a letter which appears to be from the Chief of Iraqi intelligence - saying that George Galloway requires thousands of pounds to be paid anonymously to him so as to motivate him to do more work campaigning for Iraq.
The letter says that "it is necessary to grant him oil contracts ... to provide him with a financial income under commercial cover without being connected to him directly."
George Galloway who is away, writing a book about Iraq, denied the claims and said the documents sounded like forgeries. Mr Galloway said he would be taking legal action. The newspaper said it was satisfied the documents were genuine.
The Daily Telegraph claims that the Iraqi government paid George Galloway with money from its oil sales. Under United Nations sanctions the proceeds from Iraqi oil sales are supposed to have been spent on food and medicine. The Jordanian businessman alleged to be Iraqi intelligence's link-man to George Galloway said all the allegations were laughable.
George Galloway's work inside and outside parliament has always been controversial. As head of the charity war on want he was investigated and cleared of mis-using funds but paid back some contested expenses. In the mid '90s he started up an Asian weekly newspaper with financial backing from the Pakistani government. And in 1998, he launched the "Mariam" Appeal, named after the eight-year-old leukaemia sufferer Mr Galloway brought to Glasgow for hospital treatment.
But the Labour Party leadership has long thought George Galloway's political conduct unacceptable. He was called in by the whips last week and told he faced disciplinary proceedings for saying that Mr Blair and President Bush were like wolves descending on the Iraqi people. Today the Labour Party Chairman said that inquiry was continuing.
In days gone by the Labour leadership would have been traumatised by allegations surrounding a left winger in its ranks. But Tony Blair's credentials on the Right of the Party are unassailable and he is probably rejoicing at his backbencher's discomfort, happy that he may have more ammunition to fire at a man he described only last week as disgraceful.
George Galloway's full statement
This attack is part of a smear campaign, against those who stood against the illegal and bloody war on Iraq and against its occupation by foreign forces.
As I am out of the country, writing a book about Iraq, I have not seen the so-called "documents" the Telegraph - a highly partisan source - claims to have access to.
The idea that such documents have, as if to order, come to light just days after the massive assault on Baghdad, the looting and destruction of its ministries and government buildings, and the chaos in the country must be treated as highly suspect.
This is especially so in the light of the widespread deception and forgery deployed already by those bent upon war on Iraq, for example in the so-called "dossier" and in the forged documents, now discredited, appearing to show Iraqi purchases of Uranium from Niger.
Without having seen the Telegraph's documents, from the way they have been described to me I can state that they bear all the hallmarks of having been either forged or doctored and are designed to discredit those who stood against the war.
Insofar as the contents of these documents have been described to me, I would make the following points:
1. To the best of my knowledge, I have never met an officer of the Iraqi intelligence.
2. Given that I have had access over the years to Iraq's political leadership, most often the deputy prime minister Tariq Aziz, I would have absolutely no reason to be meeting with an official of Iraqi intelligence.
3. I have never solicited nor received money from Iraq for our campaign against war and sanctions.
4. I have never seen a barrel of oil, never owned one, never bought one, never sold one.
5. The campaign which I fought over many years was funded by only three significant sources, ie donors of more than, say, three thousand pounds. These were the pro-western governments of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and the Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zeurekat, who took over responsibility for the Mariam Appeal some time ago. Of these three sources, by far the most significant was the government of the UAE which donated in excess of half a million pounds to the Mariam Appeal.
6. I have never been a signatory or trustee of the Mariam Appeal. I was its founder.
7. Any interests I had in relation to the Mariam Appeal are registered in the House of Commons register of members' interests.
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